Stop! Look! Choose, to Eat!

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. So, being healthy is not just about weighing correctly but also being happy and stress-free and overall nutritionally compliant. Food and health have always been connected. We at A Journalist Reveals found that there is still a dearth of awareness as far as diet and the right food-intake is concerned. We found Dietician Shweta Gupta, Sr. Clinical Nutritionist and Diabetes Educator from Max Healthcare, Pitampura and requested her to shed some light on the issue. She told us, “We, at Max Healthcare Pitampura, educate patients on the importance of being healthy and promote your overall health. Eating well does not mean giving up the foods you love, it means choosing the food appropriately. Moderation is the key.

Eating Mistakes That Sabotage Your Health: Dietitian Ruchita Kapoor also from Max Healthcare, Pitampura also shares her personal experience focusing on the following errors made by people frequently in selecting the food items:

• Skipping breakfast/eating unhealthy breakfast: One should add a healthy protein to our breakfast like a good serving of milk instead of tea/coffee, which really makes a big difference in your satiety level. But, generally, this is not the scenario as people tend to avoid breakfast in a hurry.
• Lack of fiber in diet: Eating salads or healthy greens during lunch or dinner adds to fullness but they should not be loaded with rich creamy dressings.
• Trying fad diets: Sometimes when people hear about a diet that promises quick weight loss, they go for these shortcuts. But, instead of going for healthy options with lifestyle changes, the first answer is “I need to think!”
• Leaving carbs off the plate: One of the most popular mistake people tend to do is considering carbohydrate as the biggest culprit in diet malfunctions. You really have to believe it that you can lose weight and enjoy carbs too – as Ruchita usually recommend. It all depends on total calorie requirement for a day.
• Munching and not counting the hidden calories: One eats anything as an in-between snack while moving around. Remember, a snack is just a mini-meal. You just can’t have anything. They should have a healthy protein or fiber in them.
• Not exercising much: Lack of exercise leads to loss of muscle mass and lowers metabolism. People have numerous excuses regarding time but we have to understand that all of us have 24hrs in a day and we are the ones who have to prioritize.

Patient’s Reactions when Dietitians Inform them about their Mistakes: Eating healthier is a process and convincing the patients is sometimes challenging so that they understand what is expected in a specific time frame. “They will not agree and follow all the instructions you give to them. We have to provide an integrated answer to their needs especially when there is so much misinformation about nutrition and foods that surround them,” says Dietitian Ruchita Kapoor.

Diet plans are also available all across the social media and people tend to follow them blindly irrespective of the fact that those plans are standard ones and a majority of them are not meant for Indians.

But dieticians believe in tailoring diet to the patient’s needs, to their requirements with ingredients from their own kitchen. Easy to follow and practical diet along with the motivation from the dietician and the visible results are the steps towards a successful and healthy lifestyle.

“With recent new developments in the field of nutrition, the variety of foods have widened thus enabling us to serve better according to the requirements, likes and dislikes and the seasonal localized foods and just not blindly following the West. The best commitment one can give to oneself is a thorough commitment to a healthy diet,” highlights Dietitian Shweta Gupta.